If you’ve ever had the misfortune of seeing a new toolbar appear on your browser as soon as you downloaded and installed a program or application, you’ve already had your first interaction with a potentially unwanted program.
As the name suggests, potentially unwanted programs are not exactly anyone’s favorite program. In most cases, this is because the program in question does not add any value to the computer or system in question. Instead, potentially unwanted programs either take up significant amounts of screen space like browser toolbars or pop-ups, or end up affecting your computer in other ways such as slowing them down or making it difficult for you to perform certain functions and operations.
Also known as bundleware, junkware, and potentially unwanted applications, potentially unwanted programs can also collect and save private and confidential information in some cases. With that said, since you “agreed” to their download and installation, it is generally not possible to take the same action against potentially unwanted programs as you would with malware.